open questions

Categories: Site glossary

invite a wide range of potential responses

Open (rather than closed) questions are more suited for interviews and questionnaires when the researcher is seeking to learn about the opinions, values etc., of respondents in terms of what is important to them and how they construe their experience (e.g., in idiographic research)

See: Question types

Author: Keith

Former school and college science teacher, teacher educator, research supervisor, and research methods lecturer. Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.